MAYFIELD SPECIAL JURY PRIZE for ANTHROPOLOGICAL CINEMA

“I can’t tell you how much pleasure it has given me!”  Prof. Jorge Preloran (Ethnographic Filmmaker)

“Engaging and accurate….challenges stereotypes.” Prof. Marc Becker (Historian)

“Excellent” Anibal Buitron (Co-author The Awakening Valley)

Red Earth Film and Video Conference — FINALIST, DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Dreamspeakers Festival — NOMINEE, BEST GLOBAL INDIGENOUS AWARD
Pacific NW Festival of Fictional and Anthropological Cinema — MAYFIELD SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR ANTHROPOLOGICAL CINEMA
Imbabura Video Festival

A Spanish version of the film– Tejiendo El Futuro– is available from Documentary Educational Resources.

Too often stories of indigenous people are told by outsiders. This documentary is no exception. It’s a story made possible only by the generosity of the people of Otavalo. The weavers of Otavalo travel the world. But many people in the United States might be hard pressed to find Ecuador on a map, let alone have any knowledge of native people. I hope that sharing what I have learned, might open the door for viewers who are curious about our changing, interconnected world.

Bibliography
The Awakening Valley, by John Collier, Jr. and Aníbal Buitrón

Peguche, Canton of Otavalo, Province of Imbabura, Ecuador: a Study of Andean Indians, by Elsie Clews Parsons

Andean Entrepreneurs: Otavalo Merchants and Musicians in the Global Arena
by Lynn Meisch

Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador by David Kyle

The Native Leisure Class: Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld

Links
Otavalo, Ecuador
Building Bridges: A Peace Corps Classroom Guide to Cross-Cultural Understanding
Alberto Muenala Otavalo Filmmaker
Otavalo Videos
Quito Journal 1995

Archives
1″ Video Master
UCLA Film and Televison Archive 

Original Master Materials
Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
Mark White
Museum Support Center
4210 Silver Hill Rd.
Suitland, MD 20746
w 301 238 1323 
whitemk@si.edu

Culturama:

The Otavaleños of Ecuador

By Miriam Freeman

Anthropology 002 P George Washington University 
Professor Miller
November 10, 2009

The Otavaleños, or simply Otavalos, are the indigenous people living in the Otavalo valley of the Andes Mountains of Ecuador (Meisch 1998:50). Two volcanoes known as Taita (father) Imbabura and Mama (mother) Cotacachi flank the valley, located approximately 9,200 feet above sea level. The valley is in the canton, or county, of Otavalo, which is in the province of Imbabura. Though Ibarra is the provincial capital, the town of Otavalo is the commercial center, serving as the hub for 75 surrounding towns. Otavalo is about 65 miles north of Quito, the capital of Ecuador. There are an estimated 65 thousand Otavaleños, of which 10 thousand live outside the valley and 24 thousand live in the town of Otavalo itself. The Otavaleños are best thought of not as a tribe, but as a “regionally distinct ethnic group” (Salomon 1981:421).

The Otavaleños trace their history back to the Cara or Caranqui tribe, related to the Indians of Colombia (Solomon 1981:433). Merchants played a historically important role for the indigenous people even in pre-Incan times (Solomon 1981:434). Around 1450 CE, Inca conquest transformed the town of Sarance (now Otavalo) into an administrative center and introduced the Quechua language, spoken by Otavaleños today (Solomon 1981:435). After Spanish conquest in 1534 by Sebastián de Benalcázar, the encomienda system was established, subjecting areas of land and Indians to the control of Spaniards and requiring the exchange of protection and Christian teaching by the Spaniards for goods and labor by the Indians (Solomon 1981:436).

Rodrigo de Salazar was the keeper of the Otavaleño land and people until 1581, when the area was turned over to the Spanish state. At this point, the local textile industry was forcibly encouraged by quota requirements of cloth and obrajes, factories with exploited labor. When Ecuador gained independence, the weaving economy suffered from competition with English cloth (Solomon 1981:440). After decades of economic struggle, in the early twentieth century Otavaleños discovered that they could cheaply imitate and sell English tweed (Solomon 1981:442). Even though this specialty has become obsolete, the weaving economy continued to adapt and prosper and continues to be prominent today.

In fact, the Otavaleños are best known for their economic success in weaving. Otavaleños have long been both weavers and farmers, but after the Law of Agrarian Reform in 1964, many Otavaleños were able to weave for themselves and start businesses, rather than weaving for hacienda (estate) owners in exchange for the right to farm a plot of land under the system know as huasipungo (Meisch 1998:51). Today Otavaleños continue to farm and weave, combining agricultural and industrial modes of livelihood (Miller 2009:98-101). Generally weaving is the more profitable enterprise, and those families that are exclusively involved in weaving are quite prosperous (Meisch 1998:53). While many Otavaleños sell their products at the famous Saturday market, more and more are selling beyond the scope of their local setting, venturing as far as Spain and the United States.

Otavaleños are also turning to music as a means of livelihood. David Kyle characterizes two phases of transnational Otavaleño migration, the first composed of elite weavers, and the second consisting of those wishing to break into the weaving market (Kyle 2000:161). Often members of this second wave use Andean folk music as a less capital-intensive transitional product. Otavaleños use a variety of methods to gain contacts to the West. Foreign visitors often become compadres (godparents), which establishes traditional relationships where they are expected to provide contacts and favors from Europe or the United States (Kyle 2000:164). Otavaleño men also woo Western women, known as gringas, to gain economic and social ties abroad (Kyle 2000:178).

For those Otavaleños who stay local, men do most of the weaving while women maintain the household. In his time allocation study, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld found that Otavaleños spend relatively little time farming in the fields: just seven percent for women and five percent for men (Colloredo-Mansfeld 1999:19-20). However, women spend much of their day doing domestic tasks while men spend almost half their time on cash-generating activities. Women do participate significantly in commercial activities as well.

These gender differences are also reflected in clothing choices. As a society with increasing connections to the outside world, it is notable that the Otavaleños have largely maintained indigenous dress, though of course it has changed over time (Meisch 1998:50-83). Women wear embroidered blouses, two wrapped skirts (one white, followed by one black or navy), held up by two belts, and topped by a headscarf. Men traditionally wear loose white pants, white blouses, blue ponchos, and felt hats. Both men and women wear alpargatas, handmade sandals. However, men’s dress is changing more rapidly than women’s and increasingly men wear their traditional clothing only on special occasions and have adopted more Western clothing for everyday usage.

Language has also changed remarkably in Otavalo. Because of the historical presence of Spanish colonists as well as the use of Spanish in schools, most Otavaleños speak Spanish (Meisch 1998:50). In fact, many Otavaleños will speak only Spanish in front of whites and will not admit to speaking Quechua in front of non-indigenous people (Butler 1985:204). Additionally, as transnational ties increase, Otavaleños are taking on additional languages like English to facilitate trade (Meisch 1998:50). Local leadership roles have also changed. Racu taita are the traditional elders who gain their respect through influence (Butler 1985:198-199). These men gather and redistribute food to gain greater power and leadership. Evolving from this, curagas are leaders originating from the Spanish-designated nobility who entrusted control of the land to certain individuals (Butler 1985:200-203). While the position is generally ascribed and passed to the first-born son, it is also compared to that of a Big-Man, and can be achieved. These men often have many children, an indication of their privilege, and can serve as exceptions to the general propensity for endogamy practiced by Otavaleños. Next, alcaldes, the local leaders required under Ecuadorian law to represent the indigenous people, were established (Butler 1985:203-205). Despite being indigenous by definition, these leaders are seen as suspect because they were historically (and still sometimes are) appointed by non-indigenous leaders. Lastly, líderes are the emerging leaders who fight for indigenous causes on a broader scale (Butler 1985:205-207). Part of a larger movement, they are gaining influence but do not hold a formal position in society. They are representative of the larger issues facing Otavaleño society as it comes to terms with its role in the increasingly globalized world.

With the Otavaleños’ economic success has come cultural consequences. Otavaleño merchants increasingly go abroad to sell their fares, creating an international exchange of both money and ideas. Colloredo-Mansfeld describes native culture as being, “urbanized, suburbanized, proletarianized, capitalized, and revitalized” (Colloredo-Mansfeld 1999:27). It is a complex and conflicting process. While the Otavaleño story seems to be a success story of indigenous resilience, the Otavaleños still face the challenges of modernization and globalization in deciding how to balance their traditional culture with the modern economy.

Bibliography

Butler, Barbara
1985 Ideological Traditionalism and Pragmatic Flexibility in the Internal Politics of an Otavalo Indian Community. In Political Anthropology of Ecuador: Perspectives from Indigenous Cultures. Jeffrey Ehrenreich, ed. Pp. 191-216. Albany, New York: The Center for the Caribbean and Latin America.

Colloredo-Mansfeld
1999 The Native Leisure Class: Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Kyle, David
2000 Transnational Peasants: Migration, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/gwu/docDetail.action?docID=10021558.

Meisch, Lynn A.
1998 Otavalo, Imbabura Province. In Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador. Ann Pollard Rowe, ed. Pp. 50-83. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.

Miller, Barbara
2009 Cultural Anthropology. 5th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Salomon, Frank
1981 Weavers of Otavalo. In Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador. Norman E. Whitten, Jr., ed. Pp. 420-449. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

Supplementary Information

Buitrón, Aníbal and John Collier, Jr.
1949 The Awakening Valley. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
This book is one of the first explorations of Otavalo as a commercial center, featuring beautiful photographs and the insights of a native Otavaleño.

Freeman, Mark, prod., dir., ed.
1997 Weaving the Future. 24 min. Fine Line Productions. San Francisco.
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~mfreeman/films.php?id=9 (accessed November 10, 2009). This documentary film portrays the Otavaleño community and explores weaving as a means of economic flourishing.

Howley, Christine, John Sanders, and Dana Tomassi
1999 Otavalo, Ecuador. http://abyayala.nativeweb.org/ecuador/otavalo (accessed November 10, 2009).
This website serves as a helpful starting point for exploring features of the Otavaleño community and its history.

Kiefer, Frank M.
2007 Otavalo Videos. http://www.otavalovideos.com (accessed November 10, 2009). This website hosts an impressive collection of video clips documenting aspects of Otavaleño culture.

Rowe, Ann Pollard, with Laura M. Miller and Lynn A. Meisch
2007 Weaving and Dyeing in Highland Ecuador. Austin: University of Texas Press. This book provides a detailed guide to the weaving that forms the basis of the Otavaleño economy.

Photographs

Eichler, Arthur
1955 Ecuador: Snow Peaks & Jungles. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.

Meisch, Lynn A.
1998 Otavalo, Imbabura Province. In Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador. Ann Pollard Rowe, ed. Pp. 50-83. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.

Maps
Meisch, Lynn A. 1998 Otavalo, Imbabura Province. In Costume and Identity in Highland Ecuador. Ann Pollard Rowe, ed. Pp. 50-83. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.

There are no transcripts available.